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CAUSES OP^ LACK OF POLITICAL 
COHESION IN SOUTH AMERICA 



HIRAM IJINGIIAM 



Hepiintocl from 

'Y\w Aiiioiican Political Science Review, Novf^niher. li)10 

Baltimore, Md., U. S. A. 



^'c? 



Reprinted from The American Political Science Review, Vol. IV, No. 4, November, 1910. 



CAUSES OF THE LACK OF POLITICAL COHESION 
IN SPANISH AMERICA 

PROFESSOR HIRAM BINGHAM 

Yale University 

The most serious criticism which we can lay at the door of the 
Spanish American to-day is his lack of political cohesion. The 
border provinces are everlastingly rebelling against the decrees 
of the central government. One hundred years ago, when the 
Spanish colonies began to secure their independence, they either 
did not combine or else combining soon fell apart. We naturally 
wonder why, when they copied our Constitution they did not 
follow our example and recognize the strength that comes from 
union. The answer to this and to many other criticisms that may 
be made is to be found in the history of the Hispanic race and 
in the geographical conditions that exist in the southern conti- 
nent. "- 

In criticising South American habits of mind and political 
tendencies, one must remember that the moral and intellectual 
characteristics that form the soul of a people are developed in 
its past and represent a legitimate inheritance from its ancestors. 
For the motives of its conduct, one must look to its history. 

Historically, the Hispanic race was led to develop individual- 
istic rather than cooperative action. In the Middle Ages the 
forces at work in the peninsula were centrifugal rather than cen- 
tripetal. 

In 713 A.D. a small handful of brave mountaineers were almost 
the only inhabitants of the peninsula that were able to defy the 
Moorish conquerors. The process of the Christian re-conquest 
of Spain was so slow that it took nearly eight centuries for her 
to grow from the lonely, rocky fastness of Covadonga to the group 
of Christian kingdoms that embraced the entire peninsula. Dur- 



LACK OF POLITICAL COHESION IN SPANISH AMERICA 509 

ing these eight hundred years preceding the conquest of America, 
the Spaniards fought almost continuously against an ever pres- 
ent enemy. This developed a strong municipal spirit, for the 
towns on the frontier were in constant danger of attacks from 
the Moors and it was necessary to grant them very consider- 
able powers. As the boundaries of Christian Spain extended 
southward, new cities came to be frontier posts, but the old ones 
retained the powers and the semi-independence they had pre- 
viously gained. 

The result was a race of men devoted primarily to their cities ; 
only secondarily to the province or kingdom to which their 
city belonged and quite incidentallj' to Spain as a geographical 
and linguistic unit. Such a racial tendency could not help devel- 
oping that disregard of large national interests in preference to 
petty local concerns which has been a most unfortunate trait 
in the history of the South American Republics. For while it 
may be true that the conception of the city as the soul of the 
native country has always been effective from the point of view 
of the development of civilization, it has been disastrous in its 
effect on national progress. It was just that loyalty to the munic- 
ipality that prevented the growth of the Greek Empire. 

Another result of the eight centuries of Christian warfare 
against the infidel Moor was the development of moral and phys- 
ical qualities that made possible the marvelously rapid con- 
quest of America by small companies of conquistadores. Brave, 
bigoted, courageous, accustomed to continuous hostilities, ar- 
dently devoted to a cause for which they were willing to lay down 
their lives, fighting in the last ditch, it is not surprising that the 
ancestors of the South Americans were able to achieve such won- 
derful results in the 16th century. 

Only a vigorous and rising nation could have accomplished 
the great work of exploring, conquering and colonizing America 
which was done in that century. As a matter of fact, a wonder- 
ful transformation did take place in Spain during the latter part 
of the 15th and the beginning of the sixteenth century. 

The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella united by personal 
bonds what had formerly been a handful of detached kingdoms. 



510 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

These countries each had their own laws, their own pecuHar cus- 
toms and separate administrative systems. Some of the prov- 
inces were inhabited by people of different stock. The process 
of unification under Ferdinand and Isabella was almost contem- 
poraneous with the colonization of America. For a career des- 
tined to be as great as that of any of the larger empires of history, 
Spain had at the beginning of the colonizing period an inade- 
quate political organization. Spanish racial unity and religious 
uniformity were of recent growth. The European progenitors 
of the Spanish conquerors did not fight for Spain as a whole but 
rather as citizens of a municipality or as vassals of a petty king. 
The spirit of a centralized, unified government whose citizens 
are willing to sacrifice everything for the size of their nation, 
did not run in the blood of the conquistadores. Their ancestors 
belonged to a fragmentary and embryonic group of nations. 

Spain only adopted a policy of centralization a very few years 
before the acquisition of her American colonies. The effect of 
such a change in methods of government on popular habits of 
thought could not be felt for generations. In the meantime, 
South America was being colonized by men who had no sense 
of racial unity and few tendencies towards concerted political 
action. 

Hence it is not at all surprising that their descendants, the 
heroes of the wars of emancipation, did not find it easy or natural 
to unite under one government. It was in accordance with the 
history of their race that they should form separate political 
establishments. It was also in accordance with that Spanish 
colonial policy which forbade communication between the dif- 
ferent colonies and in no way encouraged a community of inter- 
ests. 

Historically then, there was little to cause the South Ameri- 
can colonies, on achieving their independence, to unite, even 
had they not been separated by tremendous natural obstacles. 

The founders of the original thirteen English colonies not only 
inherited racial unity but providentially built their homes on 
a short strip of sea coast and occupied a homogeneous country, 
no larger than a single Spanish colony. Their union followed 



LACK OF POLITICAL COHESION IN SPANISH AMERICA 511 

as a matter of course. It was quite otherwise in South America. 
For, as though it were not enough that the tendency of the race 
was towards building up individual communities rather than 
federations, as though the laws forbidding the colonies from 
trading with one another and from travelling from one colony 
to another were not a sufficient preventative of union, all the 
forces of nature, mountains, rivers, deserts, swamps and even 
winds combined to promote the isolation of the new republics. 
The top of the highest mountain in the thirteen English colonies 
was not half as high as the lowest point in the ranges of lofty 
mountains that separated the Spanish colonies; nor one-third 
as high as the Uspallata Pass by which Chile is connected with 
Argentina. 

Although the basins of the Amazon, the La Plata and the 
Orinoco offered many thousands of miles of navigable highways, 
the masses of water were too copious and too irregular to be con- 
trolled before the era of steam navigation. In the great valleys 
east of the Andes, the excessive fertility of the soil has produced 
an enormous area of continuous woodlands, a mass of vegeta- 
tion that has defied the efforts of centuries to effect clearings 
and roads. This densely timbered and sparsely inhabited region 
keeps Venezuela from having any dealings with Bolivia more 
effectually than if an absolute desert lay between them. 

There is nothing that separates one of the United States from 
another that is at all comparable to the lofty chain of the Andes 
and the impenetrable jungle that lies for hundreds of miles on 
the eastern slope of the Cordillera. The more one considers 
the matter, the more it seems as though nature could not have 
placed more impassable obstacles in the way of intercommuni- 
cation if she had set out with that definite purpose in view. In 
comparison with the difficulties of travelling from Lima, the 
center of the old Spanish domain, to Buenos Aires, a journey 
from New York to Charleston in the days of the American revo- 
lution was a mere pleasure jaunt and yet it seemed difficult 
enough at that time. Nowhere in the English colonies existed 
such impediments to communication as the deserts of northern 
Chile and southern Peru, the swamps of eastern Colombia and 



512 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

western Venezuela, the forests of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, 
or the gigantic chain of the Andes whose lowest point for thou- 
sands of miles is at least ten thousand feet above the sea. 

It is not for us to criticise the South Americans for having 
failed to unite and form a great nation. Our ancestors were 
favored by nature with a region that is comparatively accessible 
in all parts. It is not any more creditable to the English colonists 
that they united than it is discreditable to the Latin-Americans 
that they did not. In both cases, racial characteristics; aided 
by diverse policies of colonial administration made a foundation 
for growth which by an extraordinary coincidence, was in every 
possible way favored by local geographical conditions. The Eng- 
lish colonists, on securing their independence, had been acquainted 
with one another for generations; had fought side by side in the 
French and Indian wars; had inter-married, built up social and 
business friendships; united in sending agents to the mother 
country and in sending representatives to Congresses where the 
leading men of each colony came to know one another's desires 
and aspirations. Placed by fate on a narrow strip of coast less 
in length than the seaboard of Chile alone, enabled by nature 
to communicate both by sea and land, separated from one another 
by neither deserts nor lofty mountains, what more likely than 
that they should have followed their natural traditions and 
formed a single nation? The difficulties in the way of the South 
American colonists following such an example were stupendous. 
Scattered over an enormous area, separated by the greatest nat- 
ural boundaries that nature has produced, it was scarcely to be 
expected that they too should not follow the traditions of their 
race and build up local governments instead of forming a fed- 
eration. 

The historical and geographical reasons that prevented the for- 
mation of confederations have also mitigated against the build- 
ing up of strong national governments. The citizen is still in- 
clined to favor the affairs of his city rather than the good of his 
country. He finds it easier to be loyal to the local chieftain than 
to the central government. The cure for this, however, is already 
in sight. The energy and enterprise of English, French and Ger- 



LACK OF POLITICAL COHESION IN SPANISH AMERICA 513 

man capitalists are overcoming the obstacles that nature has^ 
placed in the way of inter-communication. 

In time, aided by steam and electric systems of transportation, 
some of the southern republics may even unite with others. But 
before this comes about it may confidently be expected in the 
near future that the development of new transportation facilities 
will make possible the growth of strong national feeling and will 
prevent the states from falling apart. It will certainly make 
revolutions less frequent and bring a condition of stability that 
will even attract American capital and greatly augment Euro- 
pean immigration. 

There are some republics, however, that will never unite of 
their own accord. Chile and Peru, for example, are continually 
at swords' points. 'The obvious reason is that Peru had some- 
thing of value that Chile wanted, seized, and proposes to keep. 
But there is something deeper than nitrate fields that lies at the 
bottom of the trouble. A large part of the hatred that exists 
between Chilean and Peruvian is due to their native ancestry. 
In the Chilean there is a large percentage of Araucanian blood. 
In the Peruvian there is as much of the blood of the Quichuas. 
The Araucanians are the hereditary foes of the Quichuas. For 
centuries there was no peace between them. The Incas pushed 
their army of Quichuas as far south as possible but they never 
could conquer the lands where the Araucanians roved. Even 
the all-conquering Spanish soldiers were blocked in southern 
Chile. It is not necessary to repeat here the long story of the 
Araucanian wars and the heroic deeds of Lautaro and his kins- 
men. Instead of being easily conquered by a handful of Spanish 
adventurers as were the Incas and Quichuas, the Araucanians 
kept the Spaniards at bay for centuries, and were in fact never 
subdued. The Araucanians and the Quichuas had as different 
racial characteristics as can be imagined. Although the Arauca- 
nians did not constitute a nation in the proper sense of the word but 
were divided into a large number of clans, each independent and 
recognizing no master, they never allowed any outside people to 
interfere with their national life. They were intensely indepen- 
dent. Even the chiefs lacked authority in time of peace. There 



514 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

were no serfs or slaves. More important still, there were no laws ; 
private wrongs had to be settled privately. All of these elements 
must be taken into consideration when contemplating the char- 
acter of the Chilean of to-day. His Spanish ancestors brooked 
no interference and recognized no central government but his 
Araucanian ancestors were still more intensely fond of individual 
liberty. His Spanish ancestors were brave and fearless. No 
better soldiers existed in Europe in the 16th century. His Arau- 
canian ancestors were even more war-like and after their first 
few defeats by the invaders^they successfully assumed the offen- 
sive, storming Spanish towns and carrying off cattle and horses. 
Before long they organized troops of cavalry, learning to excel 
on an animal that their ancestors had never heard of and which 
the Quichua even now seldom dares to mount. Although the 
entire Araucanian nation was less numerous than the army of 
Quichuas that surrounded Atahualpa when he was successfully 
attacked by Pizarro, they killed more Spanish soldiers than fell 
in the conquest of the entire remainder of the continent. With 
such an ancestry, it is not remarkable that the Chileans are 
notoriously the best fighters on the continent to-day. Contrast 
their inheritance with that of the Peruvians. The Quichuas were 
and are a timid, peaceful folk lacking in dignity, defending them- 
selves rather with cunning and falsehood than by deeds of arms. 
The servile sentiment is deeply rooted in the Quichua nature. 
He maintains a sense of loyalty for his former masters but he 
has absolutely no idea of liberty or independence. The Quichuas 
had reached a higher state of culture than the Araucanians but 
their manly characteristics were far less developed. In fact, at 
the time of the Spanish conquest, they seem to have been already 
in a decadent condition. With such blood in their veins, it is 
not surprising that the Peruvians were defeated by the Chileans, 
their country overrun and humiliated, their valuable nitrate fields 
seized and the seeds of intense national hatred planted that 
will take generations to eradicate. It is not too much to say 
that a voluntary union between Chile and Peru is about the last 
thing to be expected. Even concerted action is no more to be 
looked for from them than from France and Germany or any 
other hereditarv foes. 



LACK OF POLITICAL COHESION IN SPANISH AMERICA 515 

Even apart from such special cases, however, Spanish America 
has abundant reason to feel that with her racial tendencies and 
antipathies strengthened by geographical conditions of a remark- 
ably ''helpful" character sufficient cause exists for that lack of 
political cohesion which has characterized her history for the 
past century. 






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